Crowd

First published in 1895, 'The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind' is a pivotal work in the field of group psychology written by French social psychologist Gustave Le Bon. Le Bon theorizes that there are several characteristics of crowds as distinguishable from individual behavior. As it states in the preface: 'The following work is devoted to an account of the characteristics of crowds. The whole of the common characteristics with which heredity endows the individuals of a race constitute the genius of the race. When, however, a certain number of these individuals are gathered together in a crowd for purposes of action, observation proves that, from the mere fact of their being assembled, there result certain new psychological characteristics.' Le Bon summarizes these key differences as impulsiveness, lack of reason, irritability, and the exaggeration of emotion and sentiment. In essence, Le Bon argues that a person in a crowd becomes hypnotized and taken over by the influence or